Alternate Reality
by Dream.on.Dreamer55
Summary: First I destroy an entire museum exhibit, now I'm being told that everything I thought I knew about my world is completely wrong. Well isn't this jus fantastic? First fanfic, Nico/OC. Rated for language.


**Hey everybody! This is just a quick note here letting you know that this is my first fanfic. So please review with some ideas, I would really appreciate it. I'd also really like to hear how you think the story is going so far. **

**Also, you should know that in this story The Heroes of Olympus books aren't going to be included. Just assume that after the whole Kronos bit everybodies lives went back to normal. Or as normal as they can get when you're a demigod or whatever.**

**Disclaimer: I'm sorry to say that I do not own Percy Jackson & the Olympians. I do, however, own Cillian and Skye.**

**Chapter One: Of Monsters and Mythology**

"Ahh, and here we have one of my personal favourites. Can anyone tell us what is happening in this depiction?" The man leading the museum tour for my class asked us. The poor guy looked harassed, tired, and bored. Everyone in my class fidgeted and looked in the opposite direction. It suddenly became dead quiet. I sighed, and decided to give the poor museum guy a break – I don't think I could've dealt with a whole bunch of teenagers for over 3 hours. I slowly raised my fingers, just enough for the man to acknowledge me, but not enough for everyone to think I was some big nerd or whatever. Truth is I kinda was. Big time.

"I think I can, sir," I said. The man looked like he was going to start jumping up and down, he was so happy.

"Alright then, Miss..?"

"Skye,"

"Take it away," he said.

I looked up at the huge statue of a man with a long, scraggly beard holding a lightning bolt in his hand. He towered over a naked man, who was on his knees in front of him while he held his hands out defensively. Behind the larger man with the lightning bolt were five other people, who were considerably smaller than him. Three women and two men stood fighting a large group of monsters. The first man held a trident in his hands; the second was wearing a helm on the top of his head. It was quite obvious to me what this scene was about.

"That's Zeus and his older siblings fighting their titan father, Kronos, God of Time." I told them all, easily. It was one of my favourite stories, as well.

He nodded his head vigorously, "That's exactly right. Together, Zeus led his siblings to battle, where he cut Kronos into many little pieces, just as Kronos did to his own father, Uranus, and cast him into the deepest, darkest pit in Tartarus. Can you tell us the result of this battle?"

"Yep, Zeus destroyed the rest of Kronos' army and he, Hades, and Poseidon drew lots for the different parts of the world they were going to rule over. Zeus got the air and became the Ruler of Olympus, Poseidon got the ocean and became Lord of the Sea, and Hades got the Underworld, where he became Lord of the Dead. Zeus married his sister, Hera, and she became the Queen of the Heavens. She's also the goddess of marriage. Demeter became the goddess of harvest and agriculture, and Hestia became the goddess of the hearth. So, you can almost say that in the end everyone got what they wanted... You know, except for Kronos being chopped into little pieces and Hades ruling over a whole lot of dead people."

I finished with a small smile at the man, who stood in front of the statue with this look that I suppose reflected the fact that he didn't get that many teenagers in here who actually knew anything about this stuff. Yeah, I'm just a weirdo I guess. "Well, you definitely know your Greek mythology. Congrats, you're absolutely right," He looked around at the other students and teachers, "Let's continue with the tour then, shall we?"

As he started to walk away I heard my best friend, Cillian, mutter something quietly in my ear, "Wow, how did you know all that stuff?"

I just shrugged and continued to trail the rest of the class as they followed the guy leading the tour, "It's nothing. I just really like all that mythology stuff. I don't know why, I kinda find it interesting. I also pay attention when Donne talks in World Religions." I gave a pointed look directly at Cillian when I said this. He had a terrible habit of falling asleep in class, especially World Religions. But he always got good marks. It's like he already knew all the stuff Donne talked about.

Cillian rolled his eyes, replied, "Whatever. But, still, that's pretty cool," and continued to limp after the rest of the class. When I say limp, I mean with his crutches. Cillian had a sort of muscle disease that specifically affected his legs. He used these crutches to lean on when he walked or even when he was just standing around. Apparently, the muscle had deteriorated faster in his legs than any other part of his body. He says they've neutralized the disease for now, so he had one less thing to worry about. However, don't let his disability let you believe for a second that he was a slow cripple. I used to feel really sorry for him, but now as I've gotten to know him better I realize that he doesn't want or need anyone's pity. He could get around just fine on his own. In fact, you should've seen him haul ass when there was pizza being served in the cafeteria. That kid could definitely move when food was involved. He often said it was a family trait, whatever the hell that means. Cillian had really dark, short of shaggy hair, super pale skin and the scariest blue eyes I've ever seen. Literally, I'm not lying. They creeped me out sometimes. He always wore a red baseball cap on top of his head, and I could only assume it was because he always had terrible bed head. I'd never been over to his house, but he had been to mine multiple times, usually only when my cousin was out of town.

My cousin, Anton, and I lived together in a house about two or three blocks away from my high school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I grew up with him pretty much my entire life. My mom died in a car crash when I was pretty little, and I could only assume that my dad didn't give a flying fuck whether I was alive or dead. Not like he stuck around long enough to find out. At least I knew my mom... sort of.

For the people who knew about it, I always pretended like my broken little family didn't bother me or whatever, but to tell you the truth, it did. I used to find myself getting angry at everyone and everything. Why did my mom have to get in the car after she just had a couple of drinks? Why did aunt Vivian have to get cancer and pass away? Why would uncle Alphard commit suicide and leave his son the way he did? Why did God want to take away absolutely everything I loved? There was a couple of years where everything was kind of hard and confusing, but I realized sometimes things happen that no one has control over, and all that stuff like that.

Anyways, the moral of that story was that I can barely remember a time when I wasn't with Anton. Anyways, he got a little protective when I hung out around guys he didn't know very well. So, Cillian's visits were limited to when he worked late or went out of town, which happened a lot, him working on the oil rigs and such.

I've only known Cillian for a couple of months, but we were already pretty tight.

As the two of us were about to turn a corner that lead out of the Greek Mythology section of the Glenbow, I glanced back at the statue of the first six Olympians. I felt a strange sort of pull as I gazed at the marble. It almost felt like one of those moments when you realize some sort of connection between yourself and another person, except I couldn't think of anything that could possibly connect me with that bloody statue. I almost felt like yelling something obscene and, to be quite frank, kind of pointless and dramatic at it, but I doubted anyone else would be a fan of that. It just kind of freaked me out a little.

Anyways, as I was busy staring at the hunk of rock just meters from where I stood, completely and utterly mesmerised, I became aware of Cillian talking to me again.

"Huh?" I asked, rather stupidly.

Cillian just laughed and repeated, "How much do you know about Greek mythology?"

"Umm," I looked toward the ceiling while I thought about my answer. I pride myself in being able to say that I know quite a bit, but it wasn't like I was some huge buff about it or whatever who related everything in reality to something they read in mythology, I just really liked it, "I dunno, Cillian, enough to get the basic idea of it all. But there's a limit, especially because I can't seem to get through the Odyssey. Honestly, I don't know what it is about that book. It's like my dyslexia goes into overdrive while I'm reading it and I start wanting to climb trees in a park. God, I'm so screwed up."

I saw Cillian roll his eyes when I said that – he was probably thinking something along the lines of him being more screwed up than I was – but it's the honest to God truth. I was born with both dyslexia and ADHD. Can you say mega medication? My cousin's always used to ask me what it's like being a defective child, but I started punching him if he mentioned it so he's been pretty nice about it all for a while. I scoffed at the face Cillian made when I mentioned my problems and stated, "Don't give me that look, its true! Anyways, what do you want to know about?"

"What could you tell me about something like, I dunno, satyrs?"

"Satyrs?" I asked for confirmation. Cillian nodded his head vigorously. I had to do something thinking before I answered. Satyrs weren't really my thing. They don't mention them a lot in the myths. "I know that they have the legs of a goat, the top half of a human, and horns that stick out from their head. Umm, they're woodland creatures that are usually friendly, and they worship the God of the Wild, Pan. That's about it though," I paused again before asking, "Why do you ask?"

Cillian shook his head and said, "No reason, really, just wondering. They're my favourite mythical creatures." I noticed that as he said 'mythical' creatures, there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. It almost sounded like he didn't think they were make-believe. But before I could dive too deep into my thoughts, I heard a voice come from ahead.

"Keep it going, you two. Don't want to get lost, now, do you?"

Mr. Donne came whipping around the corner to confront us. I jumped a few feet into the air in surprise while Cillian made a yelping sound and leaped behind me. Mr. Donne seemed to find this rather amusing, and chuckled to himself.

"Sorry, sir," I said quickly, still slightly stunned by his sudden arrival. I hadn't even noticed that Cillian and I had stopped walking, "We were just stopping to – uh – to... check out this painting!" I motioned quickly to my left and turned to look at the picture. It showed a barren landscape full of people who looked like they were in pain or full of sorrow. At the focal point of the painting there was a man dressed in black robes with dark hair pulling a pretty girl wearing a pink dress along behind him. She was looking behind her forlornly, one arm stretched out towards a woman hiding quivering under a rock. I instantly knew what the story was behind this masterpiece.

"Ahh," Mr. Donne said, and gestured toward the picture, "How about you tell us about this famous piece of art, Miss McCoy. Your performance and understanding of the statue back there was pretty impressive."

"Thank you, sir," I replied, "Umm; I think this painting is entitled 'The Rape of Persephone'." It was either 'The Rape of Persephone' or something equally as weird...

"Yes, it is, excellent work. This particular work of art is about how Hades steals Persephone, Goddess of Springtime, from her mother and takes her down to his domain in the Underworld. He tricks her into eating a pomegranate and forces her to stay with him for part of each year." Mr. Donne explained. I resisted the urge to scoff and call him a retard.

The myth about Persephone and Hades was one of my least favourites. It was my belief that all the bad stuff they said about Hades is completely unjust and that he got a bad rep for getting the shitty end of the stick and ending up with ruling the dead. I'm sure that if this was a real story, it would definitely not work out this way. Persephone probably just made a big deal about it all because she's a bitch and wants everyone to feel sorry about her. And I'm almost certain that the 'maiden' goddess of springtime wasn't as cute and innocent as everyone believed. All in all, the story was just stupid.

Anyways, Cillian and Mr. Donne were deep in discussion about the painting when I was done ranting in my thoughts. I took my cell phone out from my pocket and checked the time. We still had about 2 hours left on this fieldtrip. I decided that it was about time to rejoin our group of grade eleven students who were probably wishing they could be anywhere than here at the moment. I cleared my throat, expectantly, and got Mr. Donne's attention.

"Sorry to interrupt, sir," I began. I always called the teachers 'sir' or 'ma'am' to their faces. Don't ask me why, it's just a respect thing, "But we've gotta get going back to the group. We've been gone for a while, we might lose them."

As we left the section, I couldn't help feeling like I was leaving a part of me behind.

•••

An hour and a half later we all stood looking at a peculiar piece of armour from Ancient Japanese history. Apparently it was worn by the last samurai or something like that. I loved Japanese mythology and their original religious beliefs. They were so unique, and a lot less depressing than Greek and Roman stuff, although it was all still pretty cool.

It was almost three o'clock and this area of the museum was stuffy and hot. I always assumed that they had air conditioning on every level, but apparently I was wrong. Either that or it wasn't quite working today. Just perfect. Anyways, by now, I was so ready to go home and take a nap that it wasn't even funny. Everyone in the group – teachers and the museum curator included – look about ready to ditch this field trip. I looked over at Cillian and nearly broke down with laughter. The poor kid was practically asleep while standing up. He was slumped over against the wall, his head was bent down at an awkward angle, and his hat was tilted slightly off his head.

I nudged him in the torso with my elbow, apparently harder than I meant to. He was instantly awake.

"Oww!" he yelped, and rubbed his sore ribs. He sent me a glare and growled, "What in Hades was that for?"

I gave him a look. I've never heard him say that before, "What did you just say?" I asked.

His face immediately took on one of his signature Cillian expressions. The only way to describe it is skittish. He started twisting the bottom of his shirt between his hands, while biting his lower lip. He couldn't even look me directly in the eyes, "I – I – I don't know what you're talking about, I just asked why you elbowed me."

I shook my head slowly, "No, you said 'What in Hades'. Are you okay, Cillian? You've been acting a little weird ever since the Greek exhibit."

He shook a little frantically and said, "No, I'm absolutely fine."

I knew he wasn't going to talk about what was wrong, so I just let him do his thing.

Just at that moment, the museum curator was leading the group to another part of the exhibit. We dragged our feet as we followed him – or in Cillian's case, his crutches. We came to a horribly bent sword and the curator jumped into a new story about the warrior who welded the weapon. I stifled a yawn and looked over to my left absently. People watching was one of my favourite hobbies when I was bored. I was kind of a creep that way. Anyways, the only person who was in the room, besides our school group, was a frumpy looking woman wearing a baggy, vomit green dress, an ugly yellow hat, a pair of dark sunglasses, and carried a leash with a little Taco Bell dog attached to the end. I thought dogs weren't allowed in museums. They could pee on the ground, or wreck a perfectly good exhibit. It's possible that it was one of the handicap dogs that help people who can't see move around places, but looking at the dog, I couldn't see it happening. The dog was quivering uncontrollably, and looking around nervously.

Out of nowhere, the lady looked away from the painting she was examining and trained her gaze right at me. Don't ask how I knew she was staring at me with those sunglasses on, I just knew. I cold shiver ran up my spine and I quickly looked away. Her little dog started to bark frenziedly and I could just imagine the little monster jumping up and down with every bark. Our tour guide person faltered in his speech and everyone looked the fat lady's way.

She smiled apologetically, and leant over her little dog, "No, sonny, not yet. Be quiet, you'll have your chance."

Something about the way she said that freaked me out a little and made me want to go into 'full panic mode'. I suddenly got the urge to get out of there as fast as my legs would let me. I walked toward Mr. Donne and tapped him on the shoulder. When he finally turned to look over at me, I said, "Can I go the washroom real quick please?"

He nodded curtly and pointed me in the direction of the nearest bathroom. As I walked past Cillian he asked, "Where are you going?"

"To the washroom. I'll be right back. Try to see if you can sneak off and join me around the entrance to the Greek exhibit again. I need to talk to you about something." I don't know what made me say that, but I knew I needed to tell Cillian about that woman. She's was starting to creep me out. I could feel her eyes boring holes in the back of my head.

Cillian nodded quickly, and I took off towards the rest room. When I reached it, I ran straight to the sink and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

_Aahh, reflection. We meet again..._

I hate to say it, but I'm one of those girls. You know the ones that take one look in the mirror and start having a mind rant about how ugly they are and stuff. I try not to, really. But I still do it. It's stupid.

My long dark blonde hair that framed my face looked a little untamed and extremely wavy, a result of me waking up late today and not even attempting to do anything with it. My eyes threw me off a little. They were light green and were framed by my freakishly long eyelashes, but hidden deep behind them was a frantic, almost animalistic, look to them. It frightened me. It was almost as if my body was reacting to a strange danger that my mind didn't recognize.

I reached forward and turned the faucet on so that the water was freezing cold. Once it was running for a while, I scooped a bunch of it into my hands and splashed it in my face. Then I shook my head vigorously before turning the water off, wiping my face and hands on a paper towel, and leaving the washroom.

I entered the Greek exhibit for the second time today to see Cillian standing against the wall looking about as worried and frightened as I had in the washroom. When I got closer he jumped a little then scurried over towards me – by that I mean about as well as he could with crutches attached to his arms.

"Skye," he said, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

His concern made me smile a little. But I managed to keep on my 'serious face' when I told him what had been bothering me since I left the group, "No, I'm losing my mind. That lady with the ugly looking dog standing by the portrait of that emperor guy was totally freaking me out. I glanced over that way and she looked up and stared right at me. Then when she told her dog that, and I quote, 'he'll get his chance'," I did my best impression of the ugly lady and made a show of shivering erratically before continuing, "I dunno, it just didn't sound right. What do you think?"

Cillian made a gulping sound, and then pointed behind me, "I think she's standing right behind you." He whispered.

I flung myself around and looked right into the pudgy face of the 'dog lady'. She had a sickly sweet smile plastered on her face, and she held her ugly dog – or should I say 'rat with a wig' – in her arms.

"Hello, dears," she addressed us pleasantly, "What are you doing so far away from your school group? I'm sure they'll be wondering where you two have run off to sooner or later," Her dog started to bark again, but this time with more ferocity then back in the Japanese exhibit. The lady looked down to her pet and tried to calm him down, "Shh, sonny. Don't be so impatient. It's almost time."

I took a steadying breath and then spoke, "Umm, excuse me ma'am, if you don't mind me asking. Time for what?"

She looked back up at me and then said, "Dinner time. He's just impatient because I found him a tasty little half-blood to munch on."

Even though I didn't understand it, I definitely didn't like the idea of that. Apparently, neither did Cillian.

"Uh, I didn't think Chihuahua's ate half-bloods?" he said nervously.

The lady looked at him and smiled, "He's a Chimera, honey, not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make, though."

"Wait, wait, hold on a second! A Chimera? Aren't they, like, monsters from Greek myths? Am I missing something here? They do NOT exist!" I was freaking out now, "And what the hell is a half-blood?" I asked Cillian this. But he never answered me. He was too busy staring at something happening in front of me. I slowly turned around to see something that still to this day scared the shit outta me.

What once was a Chihuahua was now a 7 foot tall golden lion with daggers for teeth and a huge green snake that looked poisonous for a tail. You may not think that this is scary, but trust me, once you see it in person you realize how freaky it really is. I just had time to regain my thoughts before the beast opened its mouth and let out a stream of flames. I managed to duck down and crawl away to the left before the flames could touch me. I was hiding behind a huge marble statue of Apollo when I heard Cillian's voice come from my left.

"Psst? Over here!"

I looked over to see Cillian standing by the emergency exit and gesturing wildly with his one hand. I was about to scramble over there when I saw another thing that absolutely convinced me that I was completely insane. Cillian was standing there with no pants on. And where his bare, human legs should be were furry goat legs and hooves. He wasn't wearing his hat anymore and even from where I was I could see his horns poking out from within his curly hair.

"What the hell happened to you?" I asked, completely astounded that my mind could come up with something so insane. It was actually rather funny. My whole life I believed that I was just a little peculiar. But no, apparently I'm absolutely bonkers.

Cillian shook his head rapidly and said, "No time to explain right now, we've gotta get outta here. Don't worry, you're not crazy, but hurry up! The Chimera is coming up right behind you!"

And sure enough, I could hear the growling of the lion half and the hissing of the snake half. Its breath smelt like burnt barbeque. In a spontaneous move – spontaneous meaning I did it before I could change my mind – I leapt out from behind the statue and did a shoulder roll – now that I look back on it, it was pretty kick ass – in the direction of the exit. Unfortunately, the Chimera followed me, making an attempt to bite my head off. I freaked out so much that instead of making it all the way to the exit, I opted out for a giant column, which was still close enough.

"You foolish girl," I heard the woman hiss, "You can't hide from us." Wait, hold on a second. Hiss?

I looked up from behind the column I was crouched in the wake of and saw another terrifyingly funny image. Where the ugly lady once was, was a fat, reptilian woman, with bright yellow eyes and slit pupils. I recognized, instantly, who she was.

"You're the Echidna! The mother of all monsters! I thought you were a myth. And isn't the Echidna also a kind of anteater in Australia?"

"Curse those stupid Australians to Tartarus for naming that insufferable animal after me!" The Echidna roared. She began a rant on how much she hated 'stupid' coincidences and 'stupid' Australians and a whole lot of other 'stupid' stuff.

That was when I decided to put an age old, ingenious plan into action.

I pretended to look behind the Echidna with a confused expression on my face. I then proceeded to point off in said direction and exclaim, "Holy shit! What the bloody hell is that?"

The Echidna flung herself around and screamed, "What? Where?"

At this point I decided to improvise. The only thing in my way between the exit and Cillian the 'goat-boy' was the Chimera. So, naturally, I needed to take it out of the picture. I dashed toward the far wall which was covered in exhibits of weapons from times of ancient Greece, looking specifically for a Celestial Bronze sword or something. I remembered that monsters – and a Chimera was DEFINITELY a monster – could only be killed with a weapon made of Celestial bronze (at least, that's what the myths say. But hey, if two complete myths could come true in the same instance, why couldn't another one?) Unfortunately, all the myths previously mentioned are void on what exactly Celestial bronze looks like.

Since I was completely clueless at that point I decided to grabbed the nearest weapon I saw, which just so happened to be a totally sick looking bow and arrow. Problem was it was completely protected behind a window covered with a sheet of smudge free glass. I wrapped the arm of my sweater around my hand and smashed my fist as hard as I could into the glass – something I had actually never done before. The window shattered into a million pieces – I'm pretty sure my hand did too – in a flurry and fell everywhere. Above the ear piercing alarms wailing all around the building, I could hear the Echidna scream in Ancient Greek (_Ancient Greek!) _to "Kill her!" Then I heard the Chimera bound after me. In desperation I turned myself around and at the same time notched an arrow from the quiver in the bow, pulled back, and let it loose.

At that moment in time everything seemed to move in slow motion. The considerably shiny arrow I had just shot flew through the air with surprising accuracy. I watched, absolutely astonished, as it struck the Chimera directly in its open mouth – no doubt it planned to fry me to a crisp with its fiery breath – and the beast exploded into a cloud of golden dust. The dust serenely floated around in the air and softly settled all over me.

I coughed gently, slightly disgusted, and looked down at my arrow which lay seemingly completely untouched on the ground. I glanced over at Cillian who was staring at me with wide eyes. I couldn't wrap my head around the situation. I had never, ever, EVER done archery in my entire life. Yet, somehow, I knew exactly how to hold the bow, how to notch the arrow, and, by judging the distance and how hard I want to hit what I'm shooting at, I knew how far to pull back on my ammo. This was just too crazy.

The Echidna's penetrating scream filled the silence – not including the alarms, which sort of seemed like background ambience compared to the beasts' deafening roar – that had fallen around the three of us, "No! My baby!" she fell to her knees before the pile of gold dust, what used to be the Chimera. She cupped her hands together and brought them up with a handful of the dust. As she let it slide through her fingers, she turned her grave to my face.

Let me tell you, if looks could kill, I would have dropped dead.

"You little twat," the Echidna cried, "I will make you pay for that!" I had never in my life been called a 'twat' before and I was truly offended – as well as slightly humoured, although I can't understand why. But before I got the chance to bitch her out, she slowly got to her feet in front of me. My anger was instantly replaced with fear and I gave what I hoped was an inconspicuous gulp before turning my head slightly to look toward Cillian for help. He chose that moment to do the bravest thing I think I have ever witnessed him doing since the day we met. He picked up a bust of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite, and threw it directly at the head of the Echidna.

For a moment, I was terrified. If you knew Cillian, you would be scared too. His aim is extremely bad. So, as you may suspect, it came as a surprise for me when the piece of white marble collided with the Echidna's skull with a sickening crack. I wasn't too surprised, however, to not use the time Cillian had just given me wisely. The second it hit her, I booked it away from the wall taking with me my new weapon of choice, quiver of arrows and all.

The Echidna recoiled from the blow with a hiss a turned her yellow gaze to Cillian, who whipped his own weapon out of only God knows where. The only problem with that was that his weapon was a set of wooden pipes.

I was definitely freaking out now, "Cillian," I cried incredulous, "What damage to you think you're going to do with a half assed musical instrument? She the fuckin' Echidna, for Godsakes!"

He ignored my comment completely – which was probably a good thing, considering what that little goat boy did next! He put the pipes up to his lips and started to play a little tune. It was a little annoying at first, I'll admit it, but suddenly, out of nowhere, the song changed from shrill and annoying to frantic and a little frenzied. As Cillian played, I noticed little tufts of grass were sprouting everywhere the Echidna stepped. Then out of the grass grew little vines, which gripped her ugly reptilian feet, holding her in place.

The Echidna opened her mouth and let out an ear splitting shriek. It sent shivers up my spine, echoed around in my head, and disorientated me for a second. I knew in my gut, that whatever that cry meant, it was not good. Despite what it did to me, Cillian didn't seem to be phased by the sound. He just kept on playing. The vines grew taller and thicker, wrapping around the Echidna's waist and starting to pull her down back into the ground with them.

She didn't go down without a fight though, so I kinda had to give her props for that. She sliced through some of the smaller vines with her gnarled claws as if they were butter, but wherever one vine fell, two bigger ones replaced it. She was fighting a losing battle. In the end, the vines pulled her entire body – flailing arms and all – into the ground. Don't ask me how that worked; we were standing on the fifth floor of a huge building in downtown Calgary.

Once we couldn't hear her muffled cries anymore, I turned to Cillian incredulous, "Wow. Where the hell did you learn to do that?"

He shook his head frantically and ushered me towards the emergency exit, "No time to talk now. Sorry, I promise I'll explain everything on the way to your house. But for now, we've gotta get outta here. Even though The Mist is gathering around this area really thickly, I'm sure every mortal will jump to conclusions if they see us standing around here with a bunch of broken glass, and missing and destroyed Ancient Greek artefacts. Actually, I'm surprised they haven't got here yet. Those alarms are the most annoying things I've heard in years!"

"No kidding, eh?" I agreed with him. God, now that the fight was over, what I wouldn't give to have them shut up! But there more pressing matters to deal with. I realized that Cillian just told me to ask questions later, but I couldn't help myself, there were just too many, "What the hell is 'The Mist'? Why was she even trying to kill us in the first place? The fuck is a half-blood? How did I learn to shoot this thing on the fly?" I held the bow up in front of his face, "Which reminds me; I should probably be putting this back." As I moved toward the weapons wall, preparing to put the bow back in its rightful place, I felt Cillian grab my arm and pull me back. I shot him a questioning look and he told me,

"Take it with us; you're going to need it."

I definitely didn't like the sound of that, "Oh my God, it feels like my heart is going to burst it's beating so fast. Shit, is this ever confusing. And how come you didn't tell me you were a satyr?" I didn't really know if that's what he was, and I didn't really trust myself to be completely right in the head at the moment, but I had to ask anyways.

Cillian looked down at his legs, then back up at me, "For obvious reasons. You wouldn't believe me. I'm sorry for being so secretive, but we've gotta get going. I hear people coming towards us right now. Go out of the fire exit now, and wait for me behind the building. I've gotta put my pants back on, and find my hat in all this rubble."

"Sure," I replied, "But why do you keep making it sound like this is a disaster area? It's not... that... bad?" I faltered at the last bit, because I finally got a good look at the room around us. There was broken glass scattered everywhere, and huge chunks of statue sitting in random places all over the room. Actually, the only statue in the room that wasn't completely destroyed was the huge black marble depiction of the God of Prophecy, Healing, Music, and Archery, Apollo. There was also the gold dust spread out all over the floor, and a red substance, which I took to be blood, on the floor around the place where I smashed the glass to get at the bow.

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath, and I lifted up my right hand. It was covered with scratches and cuts that were bleeding profusely. There was also a bit of dried blood on the bow from where I was holding it. Apparently a sweater sleeve wasn't the best thing to use to protect one's hand when smashing a layer of thick glass. I quickly made a mental note of that, storing it away for later. And really, now that I thought back to it, I was surprised I could find the strength to break through the glass. I guess it could've been some freak adrenaline thing, but it didn't feel that way when I was in the act of breaking tonnes of museum rules. Before I could dwell on my thoughts for too long, Cillian was pushing me towards the Fire Exit.

"Isn't an alarm going to go off once I open it?" I asked him.

"Well, yes," he confessed, "But what's the harm of one more? I wouldn't expect the mortals to notice it that much over all the rest of this racket."

"You keep saying 'mortals," pointed out to him, "What do you mean by that?"

He looked behind him suddenly, and then pushed me again towards the door, "Like I said," he told me, "I'll explain later. See you down there. Remember to be quick, but be careful. Make sure no mort- normal people see you, okay? Now go!" he said the last part while giving me a little nudge in the direction of the exit, and dove behind a huge piece of rubble, I assumed to put his pants on.

I started slightly when I heard voices filled with complete and utter shock come from directly behind me. I quickly shoved the emergency exit open and dived outside onto the level of metal stairs in the back, attached to the wall. I pushed the door closed swiftly and took off down the stairs, two at a time.

With every step I took, I could feel deep down in my gut that my life would never be the same, ever again.

**Please review! I would really appreciate the creative criticism! :D And by the way, 'The Rape of Persephone' is an actual painting though to my knowledge I have never heard of a statue or whatever like the one I described in the beginning.**


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